Respondents to the Argus-Courier online survey July 10, 2008 about public smoking emphatically support banning smoking in city parks.
Of those responding to the survey, 85.6 percent favored a ban on smoking in the parks, while only 14.4 percent were opposed.
Respondents went even further, with 78.8 percent favoring a ban on smoking in other outdoor areas. Specifically, survey respondents supported a ban on smoking in restaurant patios (84.7 percent), building entryways (86.4 percent), ATM and ticket lines (74.6 percent) and bus stops (76.3 percent).
These are some of the comments by those who responded to the survey:
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“Banning smoking near a doorway (or on a patio) is just like inside a building ” patrons that do not wish to have smoke in their face are forced to walk through the cloud to get into the building. That’s just common sense. Banning smoking in an outdoor area like a park where you could just walk away? Or stand upwind? I think that that is, in reality, just trying to ban smoking all together, another factor of our ‘nanny’ state that wants to ban anything that is harmful rather than let informed adults make their own decisions.”
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“I’m not really interested in going to places where I have to deal with second-hand smoke.”
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“It should be banned at parks where there are children around. It shouldn’t be banned at all parks.”
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“We don’t allow people to drink alcohol in public. Why let them smoke? It affects me just the same.”
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“Second-hand smoke is unhealthy for all of us.”
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“I have asthma and small children. We need more protection than we currently have. I am weary of asking people to be considerate and wish there were some legislation to back up a request for common courtesy.”
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“I feel people have the right to smoke; however, for those of us who don’t, why should we have to pay the price for having to breathe and smell second- hand smoke? It is a nasty habit!”
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“Innocent people should not be subjected to toxic pollutants against their will.”
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“I want to breathe fresh air, not someone else’s smoky air. If you smoke, do it in private away from public places.”
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“While smoking is legal and a personal choice, it’s not a choice made only for one’s self. When outside of one’s home, it is a choice you make for everyone around you, a choice you have no right to make. If smoking is a risk you want to choose for yourself, keep it to yourself within your own home and not in public where you force others to assume the risk.”
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“People who wish to be a detriment to their own health should not be so callous as to harm others. It is hard to evade the ill effects of smoking. Ironically, smokers gather around entrances where others must pass.”
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“With the known health risks of second-hand smoke, I feel that smoking should be a very private matter. I do not want to breathe poisons from someone else’s habit. I have made a conscious choice not to smoke, and I respect someone else’s choice to smoke, but not when it causes me to ‘smoke’ their second-hand smoke. For the record, I’m a former smoker. And, no, I’m not a smoking Nazi.”
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“It has been proven that second-hand smoke causes lung cancer, so let us be as prudent as possible on this issue.”
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“Now that we’re all aware of the danger of second-hand smoke, it should be a no-brainer that those of us who choose not to smoke shouldn’t have to do so just because someone standing next to us is! Just because we’re standing outdoors, the smoke doesn’t magically get carried up and away without bothering others.”
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“I don’t smoke, never have, but feel that sometimes people are a bit too overzealous about banning it everywhere. It seems to infringe more on civil liberties and less on health.”
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“Come on! Quit tip-toeing around the subject! Instead of chipping away at what few places smokers are allowed to smoke, why not just make tobacco products illegal and get this whole darned mess out of the way. Then we can go on to the next item to deprive people of their personal rights!”
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“A ban on smoking in parks makes a lot more sense than a ban on the use of ‘safe and sane’ fireworks.”
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“Another nanny rule. Enough already.”
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“Second-hand smoking is hazardous to one’s health.”
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“This is all for healthier lungs, especially children’s lungs.”
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“The courts have been clear ” there is no right to smoke. As the New York Appellate Court said in 1990. ‘There is no more a fundamental right to smoke cigarettes than there is to shoot up or snort heroin or cocaine or run a red light.'”